Fairways

ARTICLES ABOUT FAIRWAYS BY DATE - PAGE 5

It has been 39 years since Royal Liverpool was the site of a British Open, and it seems it might have been that long since it last rained here. Don't adjust the television when you tune into the tournament. All you'll see is various stages of brown. The only green on the course is American dollars being exchanged for British pounds. A recent, uncharacteristic hot and dry spell has left Royal Liverpool resembling something out of the Dust Bowl during the Depression. The turf is so parched the scoreboards are posting fire alerts, hardly an idle threat with the way people smoke around here.

To truly appreciate how high golfer David Duval sits these days on life's leaderboard, it may be helpful to turn away from his chosen profession and instead focus on one of his passions, snowboarding. More precisely, let's focus on the moment when he hits a jump on a ski run and bounds from the earth into the sky. "It's just wonderful," he said. "Because that's when it just goes completely quiet. There's no sound. You're right in the air and it's quiet." Even with his feet planted on terra firma, more often than not, Duval now finds himself reveling in a hush that wells up to the surface one hug, one smile, one tender kiss at a time.

A lot of men show up at the golf course looking like they're about to mow the lawn. Fellas, here's my Father's Day tip for you: don't do it. Especially since it's so easy to dress right and look good. "It's really not a complicated science," says Marty Hackel, the fashion director of Golf Digest Companies. So, how come so many men look so terrible at the tee? Based on my long experience with the men in my life, there are two reasons men leave the house looking like slobs: - They don't look in the mirror.

Let's face it: Golf ranks just above NASCAR as the most boring televised sport. The filmmakers behind "The Greatest Game Ever Played" instinctually know this, and so have jazzed up this turn-of-the-century golf movie with computer graphics. Viewers are swept along in the wake of a high-velocity golf ball hit by underdog amateur Francis Ouimet (Shia LaBeouf) in the 1913 U.S. Open. We also see the course as fabled golf pro Harry Vardon (Stephen Dillane) does: Fans and obstacles fade away, revealing only his goal.

Many duffers will buy the best set of clubs on the market, stock their closets with the finest golf shirts, get memberships to the most elite country club in town, then fail to prepare the most important part of their game--their body. That's where exercises specific to the golfer's needs are crucial. Jon Rhodes, director of rehabilitation with the Ogden Clinic, a multispecialty sports rehab facility in Ogden, Utah, has repaired more broken swings than a high school golf coach.

Fairway View Townhomes is approaching closeout with 12 of 135 units remaining for sale. The Faganel Builders development is adjacent to the Fox Valley Golf Course in North Aurora. The remaining homes include: three 1,894-square-foot Biltmore designs, priced from $241,700 to $276,800 with two bedrooms and two baths; six 1,748-square-foot Edgebrook plans with two bedrooms and 2 1/2 baths, priced from $234,900 to $279,150; and two 1,710-square-foot Medinah II's with 2 1/2 baths and two or three bedrooms, priced from $232,200 to $239,450.

RIBBIT KING Publisher: Bandai Platform: PS2/GC Genre: Sports Rated: E Rating: three stars Hard-core Japanophile gamers who have long lamented that the best of bizarro never makes it across the pond must now either put up or shut up. Bandai has brought the sport of "frolf" (frog + golf) to America, and at a price ($19.99) that makes putting your money where your mouth is very easy. To call "Ribbit King" strange is an understatement. This pseudo-sports game drops you on an intergalactic golf course, where your planet's only chance of salvation is to hammer frogs into holes.

Thanks to the wonders of satellite technology, the local media got to see Tiger Woods at the Midwest Golf House in Lemont Tuesday. Actually, there were two Tigers on the split screen at the front of the room. Both of them looked relaxed. Fresh from a morning workout in Orlando, Woods was upbeat while conducting his defending champion's interview for the Cialis Western Open July 1-4. He had reason to be in a good mood. He hadn't hit an errant drive yet that day. That hardly was the case Sunday at the Byron Nelson Championship when only three tee shots finished in the fairway.

South suburban Orland Park some years ago dubbed itself "Golf Capital of the World" in light of the many golf courses in and near the community. Residents still don't have to travel far to play a round or two, but intense competition is pushing formerly lush green fairways into new uses. Southmoor, once a private club in Orland Park and now the name and site for a development by Pulte Homes, is one of those alternatives. Located near the busy intersection of LaGrange Road (U.S.

Assessing the most overrated architect of all time is not exactly a barroom staple, especially in Chicago, Boston, New York and Miami, where the recent triumphs and tragedies of the local ball team surely dominate. Yet the annual "Overrated & Underrated" issue of American Heritage offer claims about lofty reputations of many sorts, some of which might inspire breezy brouhahas beyond faculty lounges. When it comes to the architect category, Wesleyan University visiting professor Catherine Clinton tabs the legendary Frank Lloyd Wright, dredging up longstanding, if not totally convincing, qualms, notably his penchant for self-promotion.